The invention relates to a flow body with a surface that is structured to lower resistance. Wings of aircraft, rotor blades of helicopters and aircraft, wind power stations and fan wheels, as well as turbine blades and the like, as examples, are understood to be flow bodies in the sense of the invention. A part of these bodies is also understood to be a flow body in the sense of the invention here. In the broadest sense of the invention, all bodies that have at least one surface that a medium flows over are understood to be flow bodies.
Reduction of resistance of the surface of a flow body via structural modification of the surface has long since been part of the prior art.
Artificial shark skin that has a riblet structure with microscopically small grooves along the direction of flow is used as an example. The corresponding formation of eddies is minimized by the riblet structure when the medium flows, and flow with less friction is therefore made possible. Swimsuits that use this effect are also part of the prior art. A golf ball is a different example. Non-smooth surfaces bring about reduced friction of the flow body in both cases. Even more structures, for instance dolphin skin, are known in the prior art that lead to a reduction in flow resistance.
The solutions known from the prior art have the drawback that they either do not reduce the frictional resistance with enough efficiency and are prone to get dirty, causing the frictional resistance to increase in the course of time, or they are very expensive to manufacture.